Just So Long As He Loves It….

In some way, all of us will face the dilemma of wanting to be liked.
This is unfortunate, considering the fact that we are each called to something beyond man’s approval.

When I was a kid, my faith was a belief system I held to. With time, however, it became so much more than that. I got to know the God who was there in my worst heartbreaks, in the loss of dreams, in the dying embers of hope, and in my fears for tomorrow. I got to realize him to be the reigniting of those expressed deficits - bringing hope, love, peace, and dreams anew. I got to know his quiet voice, and to experience what it was to long for his solitary presence.

Where I sit writing this blog post, I am convinced: In knowing God deeper and more personally, you are able to come to a place where His heart matters more than the opinions of man. This isn’t a process which I claim to be completed in me. Rather, it is a concept which I feel is worth exploring.

Jesus told us, in John 15:18-25:

”If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”

There is, in this verse, an idea of being attached to Jesus, and detached from the world. Our allegiance is not to people, and their thoughts - such that we would betray Christ’s words for the sake of appeasing the popular opinion of the time. Rather, we are called to Jesus, whose truth and love will often be so offensive to a fallen world that we will risk being hated, and persecuted.

For us to ever think that we are called to make the gospel appealing by way of its misshaping is for us to misunderstand the call of God, and the nature of his gospel.

Some are willing to be theologically dishonest in the ideas which they cling to. May it not be so with us. We have to be so in love with Jesus that to misshape his truth is to feel our own personal grief - because his truth is as core to our being as breath is to our lungs.

May we never place others above our God, who has chosen us out of the world.

So, how does this fit in to the whole filmmaking thing?

We are Christians with dreams of working in a field which often banks on releasing content that will appeal to the ideology of the day - instead of creating with a mind to what the human spirit truly needs. Creative, we have a better call from God than creation reliant on human whim.

We know The Maker of The Stars, who has called us by name - The Maker of the Soul, who knows the heart of man.

What if we believed that Spirit-empowered media could touch the pieces of the soul that no other media ever could?

What if we held to his gospel in such a way that we asserted him as the only one who could heal, and fulfill, and repair?

What if we were to cling to his truth, even if it should make our stories unpopular with some audiences?

What if we sought only his approval?

Thinking in this way means that we have to be alright with the rejection of some critics. We have to be prepared for the fact that not everyone will like our movies - or even watch them. We have to be so unapologetically in-love with Jesus that he is the One we’re focussed on when these things happen, or else we might very easily cave to the negative opinions of said critics and viewers.

Now, what are we not going to do?

We are not going to reject valid criticism just because our content is well-meaning, or labeled as “Christian.” We are Creatives with a call to skillful craftsmanship AND meaningful messaging. There will be valid critiques among practically every meaningful piece of work in existence.

A commitment to honest feedback, lifelong learning, and continued development must mark our endeavors. Further still, We balance this hard work with the knowledge that the Spirit is the One who will do the drawing - bringing people to the saving knowledge of Jesus.

Being liked is nowhere on the list. It is not allowed among the pro/con considerations - because, at the end of the day, we are called to so much more than man’s approval.

Creative, if you are feeling the Lord call you to the investment of your skillsets - to the glory of his Kingdom - then please, take some advice. For part of my life, I felt that telling Christian stories would place a limitation on my work - making it cheesy, complicated, preachy or unartistic. What I have come to realize is that our unpacking of the gospel opens us up to so many more possibilities than our previous perceptions of Christian media might have us believe - leaving us able to impact people in a way beyond any personal ability we may think we have.

We know and serve the God who has crafted the human spirit, and who is himself the answer to its existential dreads, crises, and cravings. We know the One who is himself love - leaving us with the knowledge of what the word truly is, and must be. We have an entire worldview laid out before us by way of his Word, and within his Scriptures we have readily-unpacked existential questions and yearnings to share with new audiences, who have not yet heard. Altogether, we have met the One who is beyond our words, and we have all of eternity to try and describe Him.

If he’s happy with it, then don’t worry what they think.